It’s winter, which means the Koala is hibernating. Kid Koala, that is.

Montreal’s most lovable, fun-loving DJ goes into low-key mode with Music To Draw To: Io, the stirring second album in his series of ambient soundscapes designed to accompany all manner of creative endeavours, or simply to set a mood as you stare out the window watching snowflakes fall.

“The function of these records is for this time of year,” said Kid Koala, whose real name is Eric San, as we sat in his vast Rosemont loft — wouldn’t you know it — watching snowflakes fall. “Or for those long travel days, or when you want to unwind. When it’s 30 degrees outside and the whole city’s buzzing, I feed off that; but when it’s -30 outside and the whole city is like this, I feed off that also, or at least I try to embrace the slower tempo in the winter.”

Music To Draw To: Io is an hour-long collection of 18 tracks combining subtle chord progressions, weightless synth lines, radio transmissions from space and wafting guitars, all converging to reveal one of Kid Koala’s secret talents: he can do pretty.

And he has help. The first Music To Draw To album, Satellite, in 2017, featured the vocals of Iceland’s Emiliana Torrini; joining him this time is Belgian/New Yorker Trixie Whitley, the folk-soul-blues artist known for her solo material and her work on Daniel Lanois’s groovy Black Dub project.

“She’s a great R&B singer,” Kid Koala said. “She just digs in. She really brought her thing to the table. It was interesting. Someone said, ‘It’s like ambient R&B.’ I was like, ‘That makes no sense — rhythm and blues with no drums? What are you gonna do with that?’ It was great to have her here.”

Whitley came to Montreal for two recording sessions, one in the winter and one in the fall. Kid Koala presented her with an array of trippy instrumental tracks as well as some lyrical ideas he had been toying with, and they went from there.

“I just decided to take it further into space,” he said of the theme. “What’s out there?”

He was intrigued by Io, which is both one of the Galilean moons around Jupiter and a character in Greek mythology, a priestess of Hera whom Zeus pursued relentlessly.

“That’s just the seed that opened up the writing process,” Kid Koala explained. “We were hanging out, talking about it, as well as universal stuff, the big questions: ‘What does it all mean? Where are we all going with this? Does it get easier or not?’ That’s the interesting part.”

The album was also inspired by the news, with the #MeToo movement giving Io’s tale a contemporary correlative, infusing the creative process with an undercurrent of dramatic heft that reaches its pinnacle on the simmering midpoint track Hera’s Song, as Whitley sings:

“They’ll come for you, to take you down / I’ll be there to nail it shut / I felt the rage, through and through / Won’t sleep until you’re ruined too.”

“It’s a darker record for sure,” Kid Koala said. “Io is a very strong character who is put into a situation that she never asked for: she had to weather all this harassment.

“So this album goes into moodier places — I didn’t realize how far until (Whitley) started singing Hera’s Song. I didn’t even know if it fit, and then it became my favourite track. You’re always looking for that surprising moment in the studio, and she really went in on that.”

Kid Koala had big questions in mind while writing the atmospheric pieces on Music To Draw To: Io.Pierre Obendrauf /
Montreal Gazette

The ability to explore such intense emotions within the framework of an album otherwise meant to let the mind wander is a tribute to Kid Koala’s intuitive storytelling sense. Which may explain his affinity for another Montreal act, known for its ability to take listeners on a musical journey.

“It’s like Godspeed (You! Black Emperor), which is some of my favourite drawing music,” he said. “It might start with a real simple cycle, then builds and builds and builds and builds — it might take 10 or 15 minutes to get where it’s going. It takes its time; I always like that.”

Kid Koala will launch the new album with Music To Draw To DJ sets in Montreal this weekend, followed by dates in L.A., Ottawa and San Francisco. Attendees are encouraged to bring creative projects to work on while he spins records.

Ever restless, he will then set to work on his next project: another multimedia puppet show, Story of a Mosquito, scheduled to première at Place des Arts in November.

“It’s about a mosquito that tries to play the clarinet and join a jazz band,” Kid Koala said. “It’s going to be fun.”

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